Richard Cromelin

EXECUTIVE FILM EDITOR, Anne Hurley CAPSULES BY Richard Cromelin RESEARCH BY Kathleen Craughwell

* The Grove of Anaheim will present the Go-Go's on Feb. 24 and Ani DiFranco (right) on March 2. Tickets are available now.... Michelle Branch plays the Roxy on Feb. 8, with tickets going on sale Friday.... The Autumns, Parlour, W.A.C.O. and Dick Army play a benefit Jan. 23 at the El Rey Theatre for Damien Echols, who was convicted of murder in the controversial Arkansas case profiled in the HBO movie "Paradise Lost." ...

"A desert," South African author Nadine Gordimer wrote, "is a place without expectation." She clearly wasn't a Rage Against the Machine fan. The band comes to the furnace heat of Indio this weekend with three days of rock and dance music and a show-closing reunion that has brought giddy fans from around the world: Rage is back and playing its first gig since 2000. Guitarist Tom Morello just smiled this week when asked how the band sounds in rehearsals. "Ferocious."

Brand New Heavies, very old grooves. Although the English band flirted with the cutting edge a couple of years ago on its second album, a round-robin collaboration with a host of rappers, the Brand New Heavies are partisans of natural, organic R&B. At the House of Blues on Monday they took the stage in classic deployment, the core group's bass and drums supported by keyboards and a live horn section. They went on to demonstrate that while purity is fine, it's not enough.

Pavement's music describes a life that alternately flows and lurches, sometimes tentatively feeling its way into a situation, sometimes soaring with pure exhilaration. Fronted by Stephen Malkmus' warm drawl and driven by restless rock-guitar arrangements, the music captures a cascade of impressions and images with a natural charm and an uncommon emotional richness.

On his new album, "Everyman," Australian singer-songwriter Simon Bonney plugs into a classic tradition, framing an internal quest as a geographical journey. Bonney crisscrosses the American heartland, detouring around cliches in a song cycle whose country-folkish cabaret style generates a haunting atmosphere and spiritual resonance. Atmosphere and resonance were sorely missing in Bonney's show at LunaPark on Tuesday.

Tuesday C-Murder "Screamin' 4 Vengeance" (Priority/Capitol) The New Orleans rapper, under house arrest while awaiting retrial for, yes, murder, addresses his situation with the help of guest artists such as Snoop Dogg and Chamillionaire. Joss Stone "Introducing Joss Stone" (Virgin) Her image gets flashier and more seductive, but she's still the little gal with the big, soulful voice and classic Atlantic Records grooves.

"A desert," South African author Nadine Gordimer wrote, "is a place without expectation." She clearly wasn't a Rage Against the Machine fan. The band comes to the furnace heat of Indio this weekend with three days of rock and dance music and a show-closing reunion that has brought giddy fans from around the world: Rage is back and playing its first gig since 2000. Guitarist Tom Morello just smiled this week when asked how the band sounds in rehearsals. "Ferocious."

Tuesday C-Murder "Screamin' 4 Vengeance" (Priority/Capitol) The New Orleans rapper, under house arrest while awaiting retrial for, yes, murder, addresses his situation with the help of guest artists such as Snoop Dogg and Chamillionaire. Joss Stone "Introducing Joss Stone" (Virgin) Her image gets flashier and more seductive, but she's still the little gal with the big, soulful voice and classic Atlantic Records grooves.

* The Grove of Anaheim will present the Go-Go's on Feb. 24 and Ani DiFranco (right) on March 2. Tickets are available now.... Michelle Branch plays the Roxy on Feb. 8, with tickets going on sale Friday.... The Autumns, Parlour, W.A.C.O. and Dick Army play a benefit Jan. 23 at the El Rey Theatre for Damien Echols, who was convicted of murder in the controversial Arkansas case profiled in the HBO movie "Paradise Lost." ...

EXECUTIVE FILM EDITOR, Anne Hurley CAPSULES BY Richard Cromelin RESEARCH BY Kathleen Craughwell

Pavement's music describes a life that alternately flows and lurches, sometimes tentatively feeling its way into a situation, sometimes soaring with pure exhilaration. Fronted by Stephen Malkmus' warm drawl and driven by restless rock-guitar arrangements, the music captures a cascade of impressions and images with a natural charm and an uncommon emotional richness.

On his new album, "Everyman," Australian singer-songwriter Simon Bonney plugs into a classic tradition, framing an internal quest as a geographical journey. Bonney crisscrosses the American heartland, detouring around cliches in a song cycle whose country-folkish cabaret style generates a haunting atmosphere and spiritual resonance. Atmosphere and resonance were sorely missing in Bonney's show at LunaPark on Tuesday.

Brand New Heavies, very old grooves. Although the English band flirted with the cutting edge a couple of years ago on its second album, a round-robin collaboration with a host of rappers, the Brand New Heavies are partisans of natural, organic R&B. At the House of Blues on Monday they took the stage in classic deployment, the core group's bass and drums supported by keyboards and a live horn section. They went on to demonstrate that while purity is fine, it's not enough.

At the Woodstock music festival in 1969, the British blues-rock band Ten Years After burst onto the U.S. music scene with a searing rendition of "I'm Going Home" featuring the fleet-fingered Alvin Lee whaling away on guitar. When the "Woodstock" documentary was released the next year, the band's 11-minute version of the song - and Lee's guitar virtuosity - were regarded as a highlight. His speedy, taut playing would earn him the unofficial title of "the fastest guitar in the West.

In your Holiday Sneaks issue (Nov. 9), Richard Cromelin mistakenly identified John Quincy Adams (a character in the film "Amistad") as a "founding father." He was not. His father, John Adams, was. SCOTT ROSS Raleigh, N.C.